


“you’re not very intimidating.”

by imgoingcrazy



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-14
Updated: 2019-04-14
Packaged: 2020-01-13 01:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18458726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imgoingcrazy/pseuds/imgoingcrazy
Summary: Robert hesitated, the nod barely noticeable, before he turned and pushed his way past Andy and towards the exit, Aaron watching him the entire time. Robert spared one last look back at Aaron before he finally disappeared outside.Maybe Robert being around wouldn’t be so bad after all.





	“you’re not very intimidating.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is two fic prompts from over on tumblr combined into one fic here.

Aaron watched the older man - Robert, Adam had said - turn around from a booth two spots in front of him to glare back. Vic had tried to introduce them when Robert had first shown up but one of Vic’s overbearing brothers he barely liked was enough for him and he’d managed to avoid the prodigal son’s uni break visit for almost a week now.

But Aaron had never been one to bite his tongue and watching Robert try and bully Adam in some outdated version of big brother masculinity had been too much to not comment on.

“Thanks for the observation I didn’t ask for.”

Aaron shrugged, downing the last of his pint, before he pushed up from his seat to walk towards the bar for a refill. He could feel Robert’s gaze tracking him across the room and his mum noticed it too pouncing as soon as he reached her. He ignored her pestering to instead focus on calling Robert’s bluff and twisted around to rest against the bar, arms resting against the bar to support him, and met Robert’s stare head on.

By the time his mum had dropped the pint - a bit harder than necessary - beside his elbow Robert had already turned away. Aaron didn’t return the favor. From his position at the bar he could appreciate Robert’s profile. He wasn’t half bad to look at really.  Aaron would almost call him pretty, the freckles that were dusted across his cheekbones especially charming. If not for the sneer that seemed to be permanently fixed on his face.

Snagging his drink he pushed away from the bar and dropped himself into the sat across from Robert and waited, Robert didn’t disappoint.

“Did you need something?”

“You should give Adam a break, from what Katie’s been saying to anyone with ears he’s not even half as bad as you were.”

Aaron watched with barely concealed amusement as the tip of the highlighter Robert had been using to mark passages of his textbook careened off course and cut a line through the center of the paragraph. “Katie should keep her mouth shut.”

“Probably so, still doesn’t change that Vic doesn’t need you bulldozing your way into her relationship.”

Robert muttered something under his breath before snapping the textbook closed, school work abandoned it seemed. “And who are you exactly?”

“Her friend, his too.”

“Do you have a name?”

“Yea’”

Aaron watched a muscle in Robert’s jaw tick.

“Katie telling the truth then?”

Aaron smothered a laugh behind his pint as Robert visibly reigned his temper in. In Aaron’s opinion it was a bit embarrassing how easily Robert had been ruffled but that was also why it was so much fun for Aaron. It was also the least he could do for Adam.

For a minute he thought Robert might not respond, but Robert seemed to be the gift that kept on giving. “I don’t know what she’s said, I also don’t care.”

“You wouldn’t keep the conversation going if you didn’t care, mate.”

Aaron watched Robert shift in his seat, watched his eyes dart from Aaron to the bar and then back to Aaron again, could practically feel his desire to know what Katie had ran her mouth about rolling off of Robert in waves at the same time everything about his posture said he hated the fact he needed to know.

Aaron got the impression Robert thought he was a closed book and maybe he was if you didn’t look past the surface level, but from the things Vic always had to say about him to the comments Katie and his own mum had made Aaron got the impression Robert was a war of contradictions.

“Well?”

“Well what?” Aaron asked, feigning ignorance.

“Forget it, I don’t need some teenager giving me shit.”

Aaron rolled his eyes. “You’re like two years older than me.”

But Robert was already shoving things into his bag and pushing away from his seat. He’d rounded the table to storm towards the door when Aaron caught him by the wrist to hold him back. Caught the way Robert’s gaze jumped from where Aaron had a hold of him to Aaron’s mouth. The way his own lips parted in momentary confusion before he tugged free of Aaron’s grip at the sound of Andy and Katie entering the pub.

Knew for sure that Katie hadn’t been lying about at least one fact about Robert.

“It’s Aaron by the way.”

Robert hesitated, the nod barely noticeable, before he turned and pushed his way past Andy and towards the exit, Aaron watching him the entire time. Robert spared one last look back at Aaron before he disappeared outside.

Maybe Robert being around wouldn’t be so bad after all.

 

//

 

“You’re not very intimidating either.” It was a laughable statement considering Robert hadn’t been around long enough to know anything concrete about his temper.

Aaron froze above the engine he was working on, fingers flexing around the wrench in his hand, before he shook it off and kept on working refusing to give Robert and inch. Aaron had known he’d be back with winter break coming up. Robert had swanned in and out of Emmerdale several times since that first trip anytime a school break came up and even just sometimes for an odd weekend. Rebuilding his relationship with his family Victoria said. Trying to drive a wedge into her relationship Katie argued. Adam complaining every visit, whenever he managed to detached himself from Vic’s hip, because Robert always gave him a hard time.

Robert seemed to thrive off the chaos.

The first trip had ended badly, Katie and Robert slinging insults  at each other in the pub, ranging from sexist to homophobic and everywhere in between until Andy had thrown punches. It had been an embarrassing performance by all parties and Aaron had said as much loudly from his seat at a booth with Adam and Victoria.

Robert had come back on a Saturday three weeks later promising Vic he was sorry - not that either Katie or himself had apologized to the other - and that he would try to get along with everyone. Aaron had had one conversation with Robert on that visit while waiting in line at the cafe, a conversation loaded with sarcasm and innuendo. Robert much more forward than last time around. He’d found it amusing, he’d liked the banter, but he hadn’t put much thought behind it.

Two months later he’d ran into Robert - quite literally - in a random gay bar in Hotten. He’d ended up with Robert’s cocktail down the front of his shirt and a scowl on his face and Robert had apologized with an enthusiastic handjob in the loos.

It was something they took to repeating, among other things, anytime Robert showed up in Emmerdale after that. With hindsight Aaron could see he should have seen it coming but at the time he’d known what people in this village were like about Robert’s sexuality and he hadn’t pushed.

He should have pushed.

“I sai-”

“I heard you.” Aaron snapped.

He wasn’t dense, he recognized the reference for the olive branch that it was, but he was also pretty certain he’d made his feelings crystal clear when he’d slammed his fist into the side of Robert’s jaw and left him on the floor of Adam’s place in a heap,  Robert’s confused girlfriend hovering over him.

That had been two days ago.

He could feel Robert behind him and he muttered a curse before coming out from under the hood and turned to glare up at him. “Unless you want a bruise to match on the other side, get lost.”

“Can you at least try and have a conversation with me like a normal person.”

“Are you really that fucking arrogant?”  Who was he kidding? It was Robert, of course he was. Tossing the wrench aside he turned and snagged Robert by the front of his t-shirt and tugged him towards the garage’s entrance. “ _Get out_.”

Robert stumbled after him, forced to follow along, but did his best to pry Aaron’s fingers away from his shirt all the while trying to argue his side of things. “I broke up with her alright? I know it was stupid to bring her here and I shouldn’t have but I didn’t thin-”

Aaron stopped trying to haul him out of the garage abruptly, turning to slam him up against the wall of the office, the window panes rattling in their frame from the force. Robert’s eyes had gone wide, mouth opened in an ‘o’ of surprise. “I’m not going to tell you again.”

This close to him Aaron could help but let his gaze linger on the bruise that had bloomed along Robert’s jawline. The colors ugly and angry in contrast with his fair skin. Robert sagged slightly in Aaron’s grip, eyes closing tight as he seemed to try and shore himself against something. Aaron was reminded of the times he’d watch Robert sitting with his family in the pub or cafe, the tight smile he’d plastered on his face and an empty look in his eyes to go with it. When he finally looked at Aaron again he seemed so small and Aaron felt it twist at his heart even as he wanted to stay mad at him.

“Katie had been - she’d been making comments. Like she knew about us and I panicked. I know… I know some people know. That it’s an open secret  but I panicked alright? I didn’t stop to think. Chrissie was an ex, is an ex. We hadn’t been together in months. I just wanted Katie to fuck off and I didn’t think about what you’d think. I know she shouldn’t matter but she just reminds me of him and it makes me go crazy.”

Aaron frowned at the torrent of information Robert was rushing through, like he thought Aaron would silence him mid-sentence and he had to get it all out or he’d lose the nerve.

He loosened his grip slightly, let Robert settle on his feet. “Reminds you of who?”

Robert flinched against the question but pushed forward. “My dad.”

“He didn’t approve?

It made Robert laugh but it was brittle and full of self-loathing that was was potent Aaron could practically feel it. “That’s an understatement.”

If there was something Aaron could understand it was a complicated relationship with family. It was also impossible to miss the fact that Robert didn’t want to elaborate on the topic anymore than he had already. Aaron stepped back slowly but let his hands slide from where they’d been pinning Roberts shoulders to the wall to grasp lightly as his elbows, gave a light squeeze. “I shouldn’t have hit you.”

“I shouldn’t have brought her.” Robert responded.

“Doesn’t excuse what I did.” His fingers flexed against Robert’s arms before finally letting go. “We could both do better going forward.”

Robert’s gaze jumped up from his hands to Aaron’s face, for the first time looking hopeful. “You’re not done with me?”

Aaron gave a shrug. “I haven’t decided yet.”

But Robert’s hesitation was already gone, a small smile lighting up his face as he reached for Aaron’s waist to tug him back towards him. “Yes you have.”

“Don’t push your luck, I’m still mad at you.”

“I’ll make it up to you.”

He’d wiggled his eyebrows, aiming for provocative, and landed somewhere near embarrassing.  Aaron rolled his eyes, tried to extract himself from Robert’s grip, but the older man wouldn’t let him go just yet. “We still have a lot to talk about, Robert”

“And we will.” He shifted them, pulled Aaron into the office with him. “Much, much, later.”

“Robert…”

Robert unleashed it finally, the full blown, charming as all hell, smile that had gotten Aaron’s pants around his ankles in a random bar in Hotten that first time. “Remember? You’re not that intimidating,  so don’t bother trying.”

Robert already had Aaron’s overalls halfway off before Aaron figured out how words worked again. “I hate you.”

“ _Liar_.”


End file.
